Weekly Report - 17 January 2019 (WR-19-02)

URUGUAY: Homicide increase puts pressure on FA

Uruguay’s political opposition has concentrated its attacks at the start of this electoral year on the government’s refusal to declare the presidency of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro to be illegitimate after his investiture on 10 January. But it has another front on which to attack: public security. Homicides appear to have surged in Uruguay in 2018 on the previous year, which was already the most violent in recent history, confirming the failure of the ruling left-wing Frente Amplio (FA) to improve security, the primary source of public concern.